Mobile communication systems are in widespread use, and there is strong competition among service providers, particularly in metropolitan areas. There are a variety of factors which influence consumers when making a decision as to which service provider to use. Influential factors include serving area, service costs, quality of service, additional features, and so on. Of these factors, the quality of service is one of the more important.
Quality of service refers to the quality of the reproduction of the received audio signal. There are a number of things which determine audio quality, such as the audio circuit design of the mobile communication device, the resistance to channel impairments of the RF signal between the mobile communication device and a base station, and introduced noise derived from the communication system.
Noise from the system can occur during call setup, but is most prevalent during a handover, where communication between the mobile communication device and the fixed network equipment transfers from one base station to another. The ability to transfer communication links from base station to base station is what makes the communication system a mobile communication system. However, a handoff event produce a disruption in the received signal. Typically, the received signal is briefly interrupted as the mobile communication device trains to the frequency of the base station to which it is transferring. To the listener, the received signal is muted during the handoff. Since the user of the device is typically unaware of the handoff event, the muted portion may be perceived as a problem with the communication service. Therefore, there is a need for a means by which the muting of the received signal can be perceptually reduced.